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Questionable Cargo
''Questionable Cargo '' is a short story which Johns wrote for The New Book of the Air which was published by Oxford University Press in 1935. There he was credited as William Earle. Thereafter the story was not gathered into an anthology in Johns' lifetime and only came out in Winged Justice and Other Uncollected Stories published by Norman Wright in 2001. Synopsis A pilot tells his colleagues about the time he was down and out and had been fortunate enough to land a job flying what ultimately proved to be some questionable cargo. Plot (may contain spoilers - click on expand to read) Tommy, a pilot with Transit Airlines tells his colleagues about some strange freight that he once had to carry. Then he had been out of job and hunting for work, He saw an advertisement asking for a experienced pilot skilled in long distance flight. Jumping at the opportunity, he answered the advert and soon met with one Julius Day. The charter turned out to be straight-forward. There was an aircraft at Marseilles with some freight and he only had to fly it to England. Once at Marseilles, the complications begin. Day does not want to land at a customs airport. Tommy flatly refuses to break the law. Day finally agrees to go to Abridge but halfway through the journey, he pulls out a pistol and orders Tommy to head for a field near Stowmarket in East Anglia. Tommy decides to comply--after all Day was wearing a parachute. He could kill his pilot and jump off. The plane would crash and no one would ever suspect foul play. After landing at what turned out to be the field of a large house, Tommy is grabbed by Day's men and locked in a room. Hours later, he is offered food and Day comes in to make amends. Tommy demands to know what was in the packing case they had carried from Marseilles. Day explains that he was a former prospecter, big game hunter and then a planter working a coffee plantation in Africa. Leopards were a big threat to humans there and one day, Day had been attacked by one. He was severely injured and almost overcome but he had two bull-terriers, Buster and Judy. These two with their four puppies attacked the leopard, finally giving Day the chance to get his gun and deal the final blow. Buster and Judy were killed in the fight but the four puppies, although seriously injured, managed to make a full recovery. Day had been order home to rest. He wanted to take the puppies home but was dismayed to learn of the strict quarantine laws. He asks Tommy: could he abandon the puppies who had saved his life? They, then, were the freight in the box. Tommy concludes his story by saying he shook hands with Day and went on his way. You would have done what I did, he tells his listeners. Ben Garrick, one of the audience, bursts out uncontrollably and laughed until he sobbed with his face in his hands. Tommy may have done his flight two years ago. But Ben had done the same trip for the same person a few weeks later and Day had offered the same explanation! How many more pilots had been taken in by this smuggler? Characters *Tommy *Julius Day *Ben Garrick Aircraft *Breguet Berline Places *A pilots' mess at an airport *Marignane, Marseilles *Field of a private estate near Stowmarket, East Anglia Research Notes Publication History *''The New Book of the Air'', Oxford University Press, 1935 - as William Earle *Collected in Winged Justice and Other Uncollected Stories, Norman Wright, 2001 References Category:Short stories Category:Other short stories Category:Uncollected stories